Conference paper
Historical Panorama of the Constitution of the Society of Jesus
Josip Antolović
Abstract
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus are the fruit resulting from the thought and work of Ignatius of Loyola and the first Jesuits, under the gui¬dance of the Holy Spirit The author presents an analysis of the most important moments of the birth, formation and reception of the Constitutions in five stages. The fust stage -1539-1541 - was characterized by the common work on the »Exerciiia Spiritualia«, the »Summa Instituta«, and »Quinque Capitula«, as well as by the clear definition of poverty in the Society of Jesus. The second stage -1542-1547 - comprises the text of Ignatius of Lo¬yola on missions. The third stage - 1548-1550 - is mainly marked by the diligence and perseverance of Father Polanco, Ignatius' secretary, who prepared texts for two papal bulb which confirm the privileges already granted to the Society of Jesus and adding new ones. In the fourth stage -1550-1551 - Ignatius presented the text of the Constitutions he had prepared to the gathering odprofessus for their appraisal The fifth stage -1552-1559 - com¬prises Ignatius' elaboration of the so-called A text of the Constitutions. De¬finitive publication of the B text of the Constitutions took place 1558-1559. According to Father Kolvenbach, the present General of the Society of Je¬sus, »Our Jesuit life arui the Constitutions themselves are not a book of laws although they comprise normative elements. Their aim is to provide the So¬ciety with a dynamical survey of the work to be done in the Lord for 'the aid of souls'.«
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
51017
URI
Publication date:
20.4.1993.
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